10 Most Underrated David Bowie Songs

Released in 2003, Bowie's Reality album was deemed a critical return to form. In truth, Bowie had merely stripped back the experimental approach that had come to define his nineties output in favour of a more simplistic, traditional rock record. For that reason it was appealing to mainstream scrutiny.

When discussing the album, Bowie stated: "I feel that reality has become an abstract for so many people over the last 20 years. Things that they regarded as truths seem to have just melted away, and it's almost as if we're thinking post-philosophically now...Knowledge seems to have been left behind and there's a sense that we are adrift at sea." Bowie's foreboding words would predate the climate of 'post-truth' by over a decade, and are hauntingly appropriate for today's times.

Delivered with far greater energy and venom than the original, his cover of The Modern Lovers track Pablo Picasso is a biting example of this rock-oriented approach. The song's lyrical content borders on the absurd, tracking Pablo Picasso's successful attempts at seducing the women of New York, who are surprisingly undeterred by his diminutive stature. Bowie is incredulous in stating:"He was only 5'3 but girls could not resist his stare / Pablo Picasso never got called an ass hole / Not like you."

Pablo Picasso is a fun, hooky rocker that is a welcome reprieve from the challenging (yet, still brilliant) decade preceding it.